Marc Fornes will teach how to get the most from RhinoScript starting from the basics (operators and functions, conditions, arrays) to the final analysis, description, reconstruction and tessellation of NURBS surfaces.

Marc Fornes, Architect DPLG, is the founder of THEVERYMANY, a design studio and collaborative research forum engaging the field of architecture via encoded and explicit processes. Rhino and RhinoScript expert, Marc collaborates with McNeel on a regular basis.

While computers have become indispensable in communication, social networking, creativity, business, science, academics, and research, the number of students majoring in computer science has fallen dramatically in recent years. Clearly, computer science educators are not taking advantage of the exciting and relevant nature of their discipline. This project investigates ways to make computer science curriculum more interesting and relevant to today's students by linking it to the science of digital media. The interdisciplinary nature of digital media -- with connections to the visual arts, engineering, music, scientific visualization, movies, television, and mobile media -- will be explored through workshops at seven colleges/universities throughout the United States. Representatives from business and industry and diverse academic fields will be asked to identify the knowledge and skills they would like to see in computer scientists involved with them in interdisciplinary collaborations. Over a three-year period, a proposal for college-level computer science curriculum changes will be made that reflects input from educators, industry representatives, artists, and practitioners in areas involving digital media. The resulting curriculum is intended to have a strong scientific base linked to practice in other disciplines in ways that motivate learning and take advantage of the centrality of digital media in modern-day life.

Can computer programming in a visual context serve as a foundation for teaching computer science? This workshop will research the use of programming for architecture, 3-D design and prototype development, data visualizations, dynamic and interactive displays and will look at the use of computer programming in commercial and academic fields. The aim is to suggest ways to incorporate the findings into computer science curricula.

TEST ONE-TWO ONE-TWO...Great blogging again since experiencing some issues with blogspot (and by now kindly sort out by their technical team - THX!) - so hopefully this post will start a series of updates on few projects, colab or research I have been involved with those last few weeks/months...

As a very first update - I would like to congratulate Skylar Tibbits for his final thesis project - "Tesselion" - MANY CONGRATS!!

Skylar - now associate within theverymany on several projects - has invited me several months ago to extend one of THEVERYMANY's on going research and investigation onto Nurbs surface - recently entitled "Partly Surfaces" - or ways to describe them and reconstruct them through different tessellation studies exclusively using flat parts (for simple "constructability" issue)...

Officially invited as thesis advisor my only reserve at the time was -in order to step ahead from the now over crowded paradigm of cosmetic components array onto surface- to require a scale one test proof of the system that would eventually be developed - so here it is finally standing! (hopefully more pictures to come & already many more on the Tesselion blog)

and yes - this can not been seen as "architectural" but rather to my eyes as required "prototypical"...

FundaMENTALThe most prominent interdisciplinary areas of human interest today are probably those often referred to as generative sciences. The chaos theory, information theory, social network analysis, philosophy of science, epistemology, cybernetics, systems theory and process physics, to mention just a few, belong to this category.A salient "member" of the group, the complexity theory, explores concepts essential for our understanding of nonlinearity underlying to all reality. It deals with emergence, a construct used to describe a universal phenomenon of a system's increasing complexity spawning processes and/or properties which cannot be detected in the constituting elements or subsystems. The logic of this quantum leap relentlessly applies in a single cell or a living organism, whole eco-systems or man-made structures and systems, whether they are real or virtual, concrete or abstract, material or theoretical.Often, the related dependency graph is counter-intuitive and a largely non-symmetrical function - our knowledge of any particular level may be useless when it comes to understanding the workings of the next one. We need a different set of tools and concepts. New sciences. Cognition itself is a generative process.This is a broadening field, which we believe to incorporate an intellectual synthesis of art, architecture music and science which is reflected in the foundation's commissions and events. Peter Corning wrote in 2002: “The synergies associated with emergence are real and measurable, even if nobody is there to observe them." This 2008 workshop, organised on the occasion of the reopening of Your Black Horizon art pavilion by David Adjaye and Olafur Eliasson on Lopud, is the third in a series of such investigations and shall deal with conservation, architecture, design, music, toxicity and botany as well. Experts from all fields are invited.

MedicaMENTALShamanism, healing, religious practice, collective experiences, rituals... Indigenous medicine appears to implicitly rely on emergent properties of both the cure and the organism. This opposes the reductionist approach reflected in extraction of active substances and division of the body to subsystems treated independently. Is this holistic view inherent to all traditional healing techniques? If so, assumed these sets of practices are supervenient to the respective social contexts, how is this cross-cultural feature explained? To which extent was discontinuity of these techniques a transformative process rather than manifest suppression? How much of it was assimilation and/or diffusion into other domains and how did those changes occur? Who are today’s shamans? If rituals can be understood as markers of transformation, does the proverbial use of entheogens have an analogue function? Arcane nature of the knowledge involved affords authority - does that make shamanism as such virtually impossible in a culture increasingly defined by instant access to an accumulated abundance of information - an emergence we're only beginning to evaluate?

ExperiMENTALThe Garden of Earthly Delights alias Toxic Garden engages with the historical site of the Renaissance garden on Lopud by trying to create a continuity of its actual history and adding a new layer. In this case, the architects introduce the rumours of fear and awe, as it is well documented that the monks of the region actually had standardized their expansive pharmacological knowledge on the medical as well as toxic use of plants and experimented with dosage and effectiveness (possibly on themselves) and the production of antidotes and forms of decontamination. Alongside with the tangible, the intangible heritage is revived and further transformed into an active element of the project - an experiment involving (phyto-) therapy and the confrontation, incorporation and embracement of danger and fear through the actual presence of the toxic substance. More than just participation is taking place: a cathartic cleansing, actively keeping the history intact/alive by accepting it in its very nature. This is also expressed in the morphology of the green house, the form of which actually follows the gravity force by sliding and dripping over the existing terraces - wild in nature rather than domesticated. But, while the randomness is just apparent on the material layer of the carefully "architected" project, the interactions that it triggers represent its indeterminable and experimental aspect.

EnvironMENTALConcepts of sustainability and sustainable environmental technologies are essential when contemplating development ranging from the urban landscape to Mediterranean islands. Ecological strategies play a crucial role in redesigning and rehabilitating of cultural landscapes. But concepts of sustainability and environmental solutions often function as ethical branding, driven by market interests, whereas tourism as the main industry of any region involves tendencies that contradict the principles of both sustainability and conservation alike. Many areas suffer from a paradoxical discrepancy between the growing interest they generate and the banality of the daily problems resulting from unresolved environmental and infrastructural issues. Lopud is no exception. Which usable options are presently offered by environmental technologies to a site defined by parameters similar to Lopud's? What are the limits of deployability of such solutions? Which constraints are to be considered? Which experiences can the local community benefit from? Which emergent processes have been reported? Ideally, such solutions should be part of a sustainable strategy that would integrate social and economical aspects as well. Is it conceivable to devise one that would restrain the negative implications of tourism? Which role could and should be played by architects in designing and implementing those strategies? What are the incentives for artists and architects to work with and within such systems in introducing change?

MonuMENTALHow can one actively make use of or revive the information that is stored in today’s places of memory? What strategies do art and contemporary architecture follow in this process? How can cultural heritage be made accessible without transforming the city and countryside into a big open-air museum? An integral part of a conservation process, rehabilitation by definition implies enabling either continuity of original or compatible contemporary use of a historic site. Is it possible to formulate an approach that would more aptly take into account the evolving and fluctuating circumstances of the site? If the measures of preservation are given the necessary attention - does conservation have to be conservative?

InstruMENTALImplementing the results of our experiments and the creation of new radical projects as a result of these departures is instrumental to create a spirit of change and collaboration. We all want that so lets go MENTAL!

"The Garden of Earthly Delights" reintroduces rumor and the unknown as a potential narrative of the site, and proposes to keep its vitality and productive imaginary. It is a toxic garden which serves as a link to the historical presence of medicinal gardens, medieval botany, and the preparation of medical tonics, poisons and antidotes by the knowledgeable Franciscan and Dominican monk community in Dalmatia, with contemporary architectural form. This biosphere will serve as a water harvester, a green house, a tea-room (for phyto-therapy) and will be energy self-sufficient. It will serve as a model for eco tourism in Croatia, as well as becoming a historical reference to the past and the distant future of the region.

MARC FORNES | THEVERYMANY

MARC FORNES (registered Architect DPLG) is the founder and principal of THEVERYMANY - www.theverymany.net - a design studio and collaborative research forum engaging the field of architecture via what he qualifies as “Explicit and Encoded protocols”.

In 2004 he graduated with a Master of Architecture and Urbanism from the Design Research Lab of the Architectural Association in London after having previously studied in France and Sweden (KTH).

Marc’s professional work experience in La Reunion, France, UK and the US includes SOM, Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid Architects, where he was the project architect, from competition to tender documentation, for an experimental Mediatheque in Pau. During his three years on this project he directed the material research and geometrical development for the largest self-supported carbon fibre shell to date.

Marc – together with Francois Roche (R&Sie(n)) - is co-teaching “(n)certainties” for the 5th time – a graduate studio currently hosted at Columbia University (NYC) and also at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles); in Fall 2008 it was hosted at Die Angewandte (Vienna) as its Cross Over studio. Marc was invited professor at University of Michigan (spring 08) and has previously led many workshops and appeared as a guest critic at the Architectural Association, The Royal College of Art, Columbia University, Pratt Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, Ball State University, in Chile, etc…

In parallel of academia - he is also teaching professional Rhinoscript classes for McNeel US and Europe.

In 2007 he produced & curated Scriptedbypurpose – www.scriptedbypurpose.net – the first exhibition exclusively focusing on scripted processes within design – and recently curated the European section for the Architecture Biennale 2008 in Beijing.

THEVERYMANY research – mostly showcased as experimental installation work - has been exhibited in many shows and art galleries around the world including London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Calgary, Lyon, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing…

Marc and THEVERYMANY are now based in New York – practicing both in the US and Europe – as architect/designer focusing mainly on computation, especially regarding the generation and automaton of parts…